“You have to be grateful that they have eyes watching over us”: When Security Guards Protect and Serve People Experiencing Homelessness

Relationships between private security and People Experiencing Homelessness (PEH) are largely portrayed in negative, controlling, and punitive terms. Studies have shown that like police, security guards regularly engage in behaviors that impede PEH’s access to public spaces and produce harm. By contrast, drawing upon interviews with 50 PEH in a mid-sized Canadian city, our research examining PEH’s experiences with security suggests these relationships are much more variegated than previously documented. We find that, rather than treating PEH wholly punitively, security guards often take a benevolent approach to their work, making important contributions to PEH’s perceptions of safety in public space and taking a harm reduction role for PEH who use drugs. Our analysis contributes practical and theoretical knowledge about the work of private security and further illuminates the intersections of drugs, security, and public health.